Swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle
March 16, 2024
The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1976 Summer Olympics took place on July 19 at the Olympic Pool, Montreal.[1][2] There were 55 competitors from 33 nations, with each nation having up to three swimmers.[2] The medals were swept the United States, the only time there has been a medal sweep in the men's 200 metre freestyle (nations were later limited to two swimmers, making sweeps impossible). Bruce Furniss took gold, John Naber silver, and Jim Montgomery bronze. It was the second consecutive and third overall victory by an American swimmer.
This was the fifth appearance of the 200 metre freestyle event. It was first contested in 1900. It would be contested a second time, though at 220 yards, in 1904. After that, the event did not return until 1968; since then, it has been on the programme at every Summer Games.[2]
Two of the 8 finalists from the 1972 Games returned: bronze medalist Werner Lampe and sixth-place finisher Klaus Steinbach, both of West Germany. Reigning Olympic champion Mark Spitz had retired at the age of 22 after winning 7 gold medals in 1972. The American team was still strong, however. Jim Montgomery had won the inaugural 1973 World Aquatics Championships. Tim Shaw, the 1975 World Champion who had broken Spitz's world record, did not swim in this event after finishing 5th in the U.S. trials (he competed in longer races in 1976). The 1975 runner-up, Bruce Furniss, however, had broken Shaw's record three times and was a favourite in this event. Montgomery and Furniss were joined by backstroke specialist John Naber.[2][3]
The Bahamas, Bulgaria, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Monaco, Nicaragua, Panama, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, and the Virgin Islands each made their debut in the event. Australia and the United States made their fifth appearance each, the only two nations to have competed in all prior editions of the event.
Competition formatedit
The competition used a two-round (heats, final) format. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952. A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 8 heats of up to 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.
This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.
Recordsedit
The standing world and Olympic records prior to this competition were as follows. Clark's Olympic record was set as the first leg in the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay final.
Making the final in the 1976 event required at least matching the Olympic record, with seven men coming in under that time and an eighth equaling it. Andrey Bogdanov held a new record briefly, swimming 1:52.71 in the second heat. Klaus Steinbach dropped more than a full second off that time in the next heat, though, with a time of 1:51.41. The fourth, fifth, and sixth heats saw four men swim between Bogdanov's and Steinbach's times. Bruce Furniss, swimming in the eighth heat, cut almost half a second off Steinbach's record, coming in at 1:50.93.
That record would not stand long; four men beat it in the final. Only one of those men came in under the world record however: Furniss bettered his own world and Olympic records with 1:50.29 to win gold.
^. Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
^ abcd"200 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
^"1976 U.S. Olympic Trials" (PDF). USA Swimming. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
March 16, 2024
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The men s 200 metre freestyle event at the 1976 Summer Olympics took place on July 19 at the Olympic Pool Montreal 1 2 There were 55 competitors from 33 nations with each nation having up to three swimmers 2 The medals were swept the United States the only time there has been a medal sweep in the men s 200 metre freestyle nations were later limited to two swimmers making sweeps impossible Bruce Furniss took gold John Naber silver and Jim Montgomery bronze It was the second consecutive and third overall victory by an American swimmer Men s 200 metre freestyleat the Games of the XXII OlympiadGold medalist Bruce FurnissVenueOlympic Pool MontrealDate19 JulyCompetitors55 from 33 nationsWinning time1 50 29 WRMedalistsBruce Furniss United StatesJohn Naber United StatesJim Montgomery United States 19721980 Contents 1 Background 2 Competition format 3 Records 4 Schedule 5 Results 5 1 Heats 5 2 Final 6 ReferencesBackground editThis was the fifth appearance of the 200 metre freestyle event It was first contested in 1900 It would be contested a second time though at 220 yards in 1904 After that the event did not return until 1968 since then it has been on the programme at every Summer Games 2 Two of the 8 finalists from the 1972 Games returned bronze medalist Werner Lampe and sixth place finisher Klaus Steinbach both of West Germany Reigning Olympic champion Mark Spitz had retired at the age of 22 after winning 7 gold medals in 1972 The American team was still strong however Jim Montgomery had won the inaugural 1973 World Aquatics Championships Tim Shaw the 1975 World Champion who had broken Spitz s world record did not swim in this event after finishing 5th in the U S trials he competed in longer races in 1976 The 1975 runner up Bruce Furniss however had broken Shaw s record three times and was a favourite in this event Montgomery and Furniss were joined by backstroke specialist John Naber 2 3 The Bahamas Bulgaria Greece Indonesia Ireland Monaco Nicaragua Panama Portugal Spain Tunisia and the Virgin Islands each made their debut in the event Australia and the United States made their fifth appearance each the only two nations to have competed in all prior editions of the event Competition format editThe competition used a two round heats final format The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952 A swimmer s place in the heat was not used to determine advancement instead the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used There were 8 heats of up to 8 swimmers each The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final Swim offs were used as necessary to break ties This swimming event used freestyle swimming which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated unlike backstroke breaststroke and butterfly events Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long this race consisted of four lengths of the pool Records editThe standing world and Olympic records prior to this competition were as follows Clark s Olympic record was set as the first leg in the 4 200 metre freestyle relay final World record nbsp Bruce Furniss USA 1 50 32 Kansas City United States 21 August 1975Olympic record nbsp Mark Spitz USA 1 52 78 Munich West Germany 29 August 1972Making the final in the 1976 event required at least matching the Olympic record with seven men coming in under that time and an eighth equaling it Andrey Bogdanov held a new record briefly swimming 1 52 71 in the second heat Klaus Steinbach dropped more than a full second off that time in the next heat though with a time of 1 51 41 The fourth fifth and sixth heats saw four men swim between Bogdanov s and Steinbach s times Bruce Furniss swimming in the eighth heat cut almost half a second off Steinbach s record coming in at 1 50 93 That record would not stand long four men beat it in the final Only one of those men came in under the world record however Furniss bettered his own world and Olympic records with 1 50 29 to win gold Schedule editAll times are Eastern Daylight Time UTC 4 Date Time RoundMonday 19 July 1976 9 3020 00 HeatsFinalResults editHeats edit Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes1 8 Bruce Furniss nbsp United States 1 50 93 Q OR2 3 Klaus Steinbach nbsp West Germany 1 51 41 Q OR3 4 Andrey Krylov nbsp Soviet Union 1 51 42 Q4 6 Jim Montgomery nbsp United States 1 51 77 Q5 5 Peter Nocke nbsp West Germany 1 52 16 Q6 5 Gordon Downie nbsp Great Britain 1 52 47 Q7 2 Andrey Bogdanov nbsp Soviet Union 1 52 71 Q OR8 7 John Naber nbsp United States 1 52 78 Q9 2 Brian Brinkley nbsp Great Britain 1 53 0710 1 Sergey Koplyakov nbsp Soviet Union 1 53 4411 3 Marcello Guarducci nbsp Italy 1 53 7212 5 Steve Badger nbsp Canada 1 53 8613 6 Bill Sawchuk nbsp Canada 1 54 0714 7 Jorge Delgado Jr nbsp Ecuador 1 54 2315 4 Graham Windeatt nbsp Australia 1 54 3516 8 Mark Kerry nbsp Australia 1 54 8617 2 David Lopez Zubero nbsp Spain 1 54 8818 8 Peter Dawson nbsp Australia 1 55 1619 6 Rainer Strohbach nbsp East Germany 1 55 2520 3 Roberto Pangaro nbsp Italy 1 55 3021 7 Frank Pfutze nbsp East Germany 1 55 5722 4 James Hett nbsp Canada 1 55 5823 1 Rene van der Kuil nbsp Netherlands 1 55 5924 4 Ali Gharbi nbsp Tunisia 1 55 8225 7 Alan McClatchey nbsp Great Britain 1 55 8426 3 Werner Lampe nbsp West Germany 1 56 0127 1 Bengt Gingsjo nbsp Sweden 1 56 3128 8 Peter Pettersson nbsp Sweden 1 56 5129 7 Anders Bellbring nbsp Sweden 1 57 2030 6 Paolo Revelli nbsp Italy 1 57 2531 1 Fritz Warncke nbsp Norway 1 57 5932 5 Andre in het Veld nbsp Netherlands 1 57 6033 5 John McConnochie nbsp New Zealand 1 57 7734 1 Tsuyoshi Yanagidate nbsp Japan 1 58 0435 8 Guillermo Garcia nbsp Mexico 1 58 2036 2 Georgios Karpouzis nbsp Greece 1 59 2537 2 Eduardo Perez nbsp Mexico 1 59 5338 7 Francisco Canales nbsp Puerto Rico 1 59 6239 1 Luis Goicoechea nbsp Venezuela 1 59 6840 4 Steven Newkirk nbsp Virgin Islands 1 59 9541 3 Kevin Williamson nbsp Ireland 2 00 0842 6 Andy Knowles nbsp Bahamas 2 00 1843 3 Nikolay Ganev nbsp Bulgaria 2 00 5444 7 Petar Georgiev nbsp Bulgaria 2 00 7045 2 Tomas Becerra nbsp Colombia 2 00 7246 5 Mark Crocker nbsp Hong Kong 2 00 8147 6 Lutz Loscher nbsp East Germany 2 01 0048 1 Kris Sumono nbsp Indonesia 2 01 1249 8 Sigurdur olafsson nbsp Iceland 2 01 1850 6 Gianni Versari nbsp Panama 2 02 2551 5 Paulo Frischknecht nbsp Portugal 2 02 6552 8 Gerardo Rosario nbsp Philippines 2 02 8153 4 Jose Pereira nbsp Portugal 2 03 0354 7 Patrick Novaretti nbsp Monaco 2 04 2955 3 Frank Richardson nbsp Nicaragua 2 12 33Final edit Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes nbsp Bruce Furniss nbsp United States 1 50 29 WR nbsp John Naber nbsp United States 1 50 50 nbsp Jim Montgomery nbsp United States 1 50 584 Andrey Krylov nbsp Soviet Union 1 50 735 Klaus Steinbach nbsp West Germany 1 51 096 Peter Nocke nbsp West Germany 1 51 717 Gordon Downie nbsp Great Britain 1 52 788 Andrey Bogdanov nbsp Soviet Union 1 53 33References edit Swimming at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games Men s 200 metres Freestyle Sports Reference Archived from the original on 17 April 2020 Retrieved 5 December 2016 a b c d 200 metres Freestyle Men Olympedia Retrieved 19 June 2021 1976 U S Olympic Trials PDF USA Swimming Retrieved 19 June 2021 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics Men 27s 200 metre freestyle amp oldid 1117442666, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
